INCLUSION of a pharmacist in the multidisciplinary health care team could detect more cases of potentially inappropriate prescribing (PIP), according to a study published in the European Journal of Hospital Pharmacy.
Researchers in Spain compared the total number of PIP incidents as determined by STOPP-START criteria with PIP incidents detected by a pharmacist's clinical opinion, in 338 hospitalised or institutionalised patients aged over 65 years.
The pharmacist's judgement, based on a comprehensive review of the complete chronic treatment of patients, detected 35% more PIP incidents than the STOPP-START criteria, which mainly detected incidents related to drug duplication and insufficiently treated diagnosis or symptoms.
More details at ejhp.bmj.com.
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